LONDON (Reuters) - Concern about the deadly new Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus has "significantly increased" but the disease does not yet constitute a global public health emergency, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday. The virus, which causes coughing, fever and sometimes fatal pneumonia, has been reported in more than 500 patients in Saudi Arabia alone and has spread to neighboring countries and in a few cases, to Europe and Asia....

Nine tourists in Hong Kong apparently came down with the deadly flulike illness that officials suspect is being spread by air travelers. They contracted the disease from an air passenger on a flight to Beijing and have since taken the ailment to Singapore, Vietnam and Canada. About 487 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome have been logged--39 in the U.S.

(Reuters) - Two health workers at a Florida hospital exposed to a patient with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome have begun showing flu-like symptoms, raising concerns about the ability of global health authorities to contain the mysterious and deadly virus. The World Health Organization convened an emergency meeting in Geneva on Tuesday to decide whether the rising rate of confirmed cases, most of them in Saudi Arabia, constitutes a "public health...

China reported two new suspected SARS cases on Thursdayand ordered authorities to prepare for another battle against the highly contagious disease. The cases are in Beijing and Anhui, an eastern province. They are the first reported in those areas since China's initial outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome subsided in July. The Health Ministry told local authorities to "spare no efforts" to prevent transmission of the virus in hospitals, the official Xinhua news agency said.

CAIRO (Reuters) - The doctor who discovered a new SARS-like virus says it will probably trigger an epidemic at some point, but not necessarily in its current virulent form. The new strain of coronavirus (nCoV) that Ali Mohamed Zaki found last year, related to one that caused the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, has killed at least 18 people in the Middle East and Europe. On Sunday, the World Health Organization said it seemed...

Eleven people, including military personnel and their relatives, were quarantined after some reported SARS-like symptoms, officials said. Officials said initial test results from eight of the 11 were negative for severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has caused more than 800 deaths worldwide. Two were diagnosed with streptococcus pneumonia. A group of military personnel recently passed through the airport in Toronto, site of the biggest outbreak outside of Asia, and some reported...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday warned state and local health officials about potential infections from a deadly virus previously unseen in humans that has now sickened 14 people and killed 8. Most of the infections have occurred in the Middle East, but a new analysis of three confirmed infections in Britain suggests the virus can pass from person to person rather than from animal to humans, the...

An experimental nasal immunization for the respiratory illness SARS has proved effective in a test on monkeys, suggesting that a vaccine for humans might be most effectively delivered through the nose. A study published Friday in The Lancet medical journal found four African green monkeys given a single dose of the vaccine and then infected four weeks later with the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus developed neutralizing antibodies and showed no sign of the disease in their...

LONDON (Reuters) - The emergence of a deadly virus previously unseen in humans that has already killed half those known to be infected requires speedy scientific detective work to figure out its potential. Experts in virology and infectious diseases say that while they already have unprecedented detail about the genetics and capabilities of the novel coronavirus, or NCoV, what worries them more is what they don't know. The virus, which belongs to the same family...

Health officials said Wednesday that 11 suspected cases of a mysterious flulike illness have emerged in the United States, while medical investigators continue to puzzle over how the illness spread in a Hong Kong hotel. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Dr. Julie Gerberding said the suspected U.S. cases are matching the definitions for the illness, called "severe acute respiratory syndrome" or SARS. The illness, for which there is no treatment, has caused 14...

LONDON (Reuters) - A new virus that emerged in the Middle East last year and has killed five people is well adapted to infecting humans but could potentially be treated with drugs that boost the immune system, scientists said on Tuesday. The virus, called novel coronavirus or NCoV, is from the same family as the common cold and as SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. There have been 12 confirmed cases worldwide - including in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and...

More cases of a deadly flulike disease called SARS cropped up Friday in Hong Kong and Singapore. "We are facing an unprecedented situation," said Singapore Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang. Singapore doubled the number of people under quarantine for severe acute respiratory syndrome, adding those who came into contact with hospital workers. At present, 1,500 people are confined to their homes for about two weeks. The quarantine totaled 1,000 in Hong Kong, where 58 more people became...

ABU DHABI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - A Saudi citizen in the capital Riyadh is the world's third confirmed case of a newly discovered SARS-related virus but he has now recovered from his illness, the official Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday. The potentially deadly novel coronavirus is from the same family as SARS but had only been confirmed in two previous cases: a 60-year-old Saudi man who died earlier this year, and a man from Qatar who was treated in a...

Not a surgical mask was in sight as government officials and scores of nurses sent Sun Zheng and Lu Zhiyan, China's last two SARS patients, home Saturday. But the celebrations and self-congratulations Saturday were tempered by a message: The struggle to figure out the mysterious disease goes on. "Our message is this: Stay vigilant," said Han Demin, deputy director of the Beijing Health Bureau. "Is it lurking around, waiting to come back? . . . We just don't know." More than 800 people...

LONDON (Reuters) - Doctors should only test people for a new virus if they are very ill in hospital with a respiratory infection, have been in Qatar or Saudi Arabia and test negative for common forms of pneumonia and infections, the World Health Organisation said on Saturday. The newly discovered virus from the same family as SARS has so far been confirmed in only two cases worldwide, one in a 60-year-old Saudi man who died from his infections, and another in a man...

The director of China's main disease center resigned Thursday, taking responsibility for a small outbreak of SARS that started at a research lab and killed one person, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Li Liming "has resigned for mismanagement" of the Center for Disease Control in Beijing following the April outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, Xinhua reported. Two lab workers were infected, and the mother of one of them died. The last patient was declared...

LONDON (Reuters) - A new and potentially fatal virus from the same family as SARS which was discovered in a patient in London last week appears not to spread easily from person to person, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. In an update on the virus, which has so far killed a Saudi man and made a patient from Qatar critically ill, the United Nations health agency said it was working with international partners to understand the public health risk better. ...

Buffalo's Rhett Warrener and Brian Campbell were under observation Saturday after possibly being exposed to a mysterious and potentially deadly respiratory illness. A county health official recommended the players remain isolated for 10 days. Neither has shown any signs of being infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. But It was determined that there was "a remote chance" that the players had limited exposure to the virus after a female relative of Campbell's visited them...